The Impact of Verizon at the Super Bowl
When the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl last month, Verizon emerged as the clear winner in several ways. Before the game began, they installed 490 5G nodes in the State Farm Stadium. These nodes, also known as small cells, transmit and receive data in densely populated areas, such as a sold-out football stadium. Among these nodes, 66 were specifically for Verizon’s newest and fastest mmWave 5G signals. In addition, they placed 1,400 4G and 5G antennas around the stadium.
Verizon Subscribers and Traffic Usage
During the AFC-NFC Championship game, State Farm Stadium was filled with 67,827 fans, and 60% of them were Verizon customers. Verizon’s Vice President of Device Technology, Brian Mecum, revealed that they used more traffic within the first eight minutes of the second quarter than they did at the SoFi for last year’s game. On Super Sunday, Verizon subscribers used 47.8 TB of data inside the stadium, which was 57% higher than the previous year. This consumption is equivalent to a single person binge-watching HD video for over three years.
5G Spectrum at the Super Bowl
The mmWave 5G spectrum is the fastest, but signals travel shorter distances. This makes them ideal for a stadium full of people. Low-band is used for nationwide 5G communication because these signals travel farther. Mid-band 5G has been considered the Goldilocks of 5G as they travel farther than mmWave and deliver faster download data speeds than low-band. Mecum notes that the zippy fast mmWave 5G was the star of the Super Bowl, but Verizon also added access to the mid-band.
Verizon’s Contribution to Coach Communication
Verizon provides managed private wireless solutions to enable coaches to communicate with one another in all 30 NFL stadiums. Mecum notes that every time the coaches talk, they do it over Verizon’s private network, emphasizing that they can’t miss a single word. The company has also created a technology that divides NRG Stadium’s crowd into different sectors, allowing engineers to adjust signals based on users’ location and data usage.
Verizon has proven its ability to provide personalized experiences and seamless communication services to make every event memorable.
